Team GB gym hero Louis Smith is also competing — giving the nation another
chance to cheer on their Olympic heroes.

Last night a BBC source said of the ratings: “These are great figures.”

But X Factor insiders insisted Simon Cowell’s show, which has Tulisa
Contostavlos as a judge, had turned a corner, having pulled in 400,000 more
viewers than last week. One said: “This is the start of the fight-back.”

It also won a bigger overall audience compared with Strictly’s — 8.6million
versus 8million. And when figures for ITV1+1 were added, the peak audience
stood at 10million. However, the show was still 2.2million viewers down on
this time last year.

Bosses will be hoping the move to boot camp next week will energise fans.
Cowell is also struggling for ratings in the US, where X Factor is up
against The Voice.